Saturday was our fourth Vietnamese language class. The teacher gave us a pop quiz, and I only missed 6 out of 31. My gloating was short-lived when I discovered that the most show-off-y woman in our class only missed 3. Her best quiz score clinched it–I decided to make her my nemesis.
Now that our class has met four times, people are starting to open up, so while our teacher was busy writing on the board, I overheard Nemesis mention that she left Vietnam when she was 9, just like me. I joined the conversation and learned that because her mother was Chinese, they had been forced at gunpoint to go to China. Once in China, they were considered Vietnamese and therefore sent to be “pioneers” on a farm. Nemesis’s mother refused to live that life, so they escaped by boat. They spent 30 days on a very small boat before making it to Hong Kong. Nemesis was middle school age by the time they arrived in the U.S.
After learning this about Nemesis, how could I dislike her anymore? She’s made it through a lot to get to where she is and deserves her high quiz scores. But that’s not going to stop me from trying to get a higher score than hers on the next quiz.
I’ve also joined a Business Plan Boot Camp. At our first class last night, we each introduced ourselves and our business idea. One man plans to create women’s tee shirts with words for women’s body parts on them. Hmmm. What body parts could he mean? After I shared my idea, the instructor said that Body Part Man and I should talk. Body Part Man annoyed me even before I learned his business idea (who raises his hand to ask the instructor if we should turn off our cell phones?), so it may be a while before I can get over my superiority complex to talk to him. He didn’t seem to be in a hurry to talk to me either. I’ll keep you posted! (Nothing after the jump.)
